A Quick Question to all my Stitching Friends....

Just a quick question to all my lovely stitching readers. As you know, I live in the UK and I used to order some of my stitching stash from a couple of places in the US which have now stopped business. I am looking for some online shops in the US that are good to deal with, have a good range of charts, fabric and threads and have a good shipping rate to the UK. Some people are lucky enough to have good, local shops but unfortunately, I am not one of them. If anyone can recommend one please let me know.

Thank you!

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P.S. I have been out of the Stash loop for a while, hence why I am asking ;)

To Jesus

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: (‭Romans‬ ‭3‬:‭23-24‬ KJV)

Jesus gives us the gift of Justification through grace and grace alone. This is why I celebrate Christmas. 

Thank you Lord for your precious gift that brings freedom and forgiveness from sin which gives me peace in my heart and a strength that never fails to get me through the hardest of times. Thank you Lord that no matter what I have done I can come before the throne of grace and find help from Father. Thank you Lord that you came from glory to this rotten world to save me from all my flaws and wretchedness; to bring healing both physical and emotional; to make provision for me financially and in every other need I have. Thank you Lord that you love me and care about every single detail of my life and that there is nothing too small for you to care about. Thank you Lord for your promise to never leave me or forsake me and thank you that you have showed yourself to me as a real friend and not a myth or a story. Thank you for the gift of faith that you put in my heart many years ago. 

Merry Christmas everyone. I pray you find true peace this Christmastime. 

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Christmas crafts with kids and looking forward to 2015

The Christmas season is well under way at our house. We broke up a week earlier than most schools in the area and I really needed that break. To be honest, I have been very ill this last term on and off and even now, after having a full week off, I am still full of a head cold and sinus trouble. My face is in a lot of pain. So I haven't actually wanted to do very much other than stay in and hunker down in my own home.

A few days ago, knowing the kiddos were getting a little bit stir crazy, I set them off doing some Christmas crafts using this book that I had purchased a year or two ago.

We made paper chains...

And snowflakes....

these were a bit trickier..

And I was very proud of my wee man who spent hours on making stuff. 

I still need to write cards and do a bit of baking but truth be told I'm really not in the mood this year. I'm just plain old worn out! 

So I thought I'd start looking ahead to next year and begin to make some goals. I failed miserably the last few years at making and sticking to my goals so thought I'd try a different approach. I have seen a lot of people doing the stitch from stash thing which looks good but I think I need to be even more stricter than that with my finances. So I'm not sure. I had thought about having a kind of finishing pot so that every time it finished something I would pay myself a certain amount and put it in the pot so to speak. Then after I have a few finishes under my belt I can treat myself to something new. 

I have a few charts already kitted up in my stash that are waiting to be started. One of which I have just started as a bit of a Christmas treat. It is Heartstring's Samplery The Stars are Brightly Shining. 

I have done quite a bit on it already and looking forward to squeezing in another finish before the end of the year. 

I am loving working on this which uses GAST threads and is stitched on 32 count desert sand. 

I have also recently finished CCN ornie number 3 and now awaiting for the next one. It seems to be taking forever for these designs to get over here. 

I have decided to stitch them all up first and then "finish" them off into ornies. I hate the finishing bit. 

The other project I have started is another ripple blanket which is a gift for my sister for her birthday but I literally only have about 6 weeks to do it in so I need to get this done quickly. The colours are turning out quite pretty although I wasn't so sure at first. 

I hope she likes it. She might not, truth be told, but at least I can say I have tried to make my peace.

So stitching plans for 2015?

I desperately need to finish Elisabeth Lillie.

I must finish Lizzie Kate ABC Christmas

I must make some considerable progress on A Quaker Christmas

It would be nice to get at least 2 or 3 blocks done on Shores of Hawk Run Hollow

I should really get going on A Most Noble Pursuit

Helen Bell's multiplication sampler has been sitting far too long 

and these are just WIPs

I won't mention the Just Nan, the HEADS and the Yiota design. 

I would like to start more - like I said I do have some ready kitted up to start but I do need to get some of these BAPs finished first. I think looking at how much I have to do on them, I should start with Elisabeth Lillie and get her finished up. Also the Lizzie Kate one won't take long, I'm sure. 

This is going to be my year of finishes! 

Watch this space. 

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Week before Christmas post.

I want to thank you all so much for your heartfelt condolences on the loss of my beautiful girl. I miss her so much. 

Today I have some finishes to show you. I have finally crocheted the last rounds on the edge of the Cosy blanket. I have much enjoyed working away on this - one reason being that the pattern was all laid out for me and I didn't have to think about it very much. When it came to the last round of colours, I was indeed worried that I might not have enough yarn to do the edging so I left off the stripes of gold, claret, copper and meadow and also left the petrol till the last row. I still did not have quite enough of the copper or the gold but fortunately I did have some in my stash of wool upstairs so I could finish it off. It is very big and very long and I love it and I can't believe I am giving it away!!! My husband says it is the nicest one I have done to date. Cheeky beep. I think all my blankets have been lovely in their own way. 

Some other changes I made were to the corners. Instead of the stated 2trb - ch2 - 2trb I did 3 2 3. I am always so worried that my edges will curl so wanted to do as much as I could to prevent this. 

Here it is!!

This last one showing the corners. 

My mum had asked me to make her some potholders a while ago. She showed me a magazine with a pattern in it but I forgot to take the pattern with me! I decided to search for some on Pinterest and found this blog which links to some great ones. I made 3 and they were all pretty easy to make. I have wrapped these up now and she will get them for Christmas. I hope she likes them. I still don't really get what they are to be used for?? Anyone any ideas? 

My lovely friends, Tina, Lesley and Tracy came round last weekend for a little stitchy retreat at my house and Tina and I did an ornament exchange. Here is the one she stitched for me:

I love it! Thank you Tina.

Now, I completely forgot to take a picture of the one I made for her so Tina has kindly sent me a picture but it is a little blurred but you will know it as soon as you see it. It is from one of the JCS ornie mags and I think it is CCN or LHN. 

I also stitched one for Tracy too. Here it is. 

It is by Niky's creations I think from this years JCS ornie magazine. I changed the colours to suit.

Tracy has stitched me something too but she said it isn't an ornament so I am waiting until Christmas day to open it. 

I also received this lovely stitched card from Kim from the RAK group. Thank you sweet Kim it is lovely. 

I thought I would also show you some little snippets of Christmas around our home. I think it looks really lovely this year as I have gone for the traditional red theme. 

One of the things I also bought this year was some wintry themed bedding. It is this set...

... and no that is not my bedroom - wish it was!!!!!!

I have decided that I am going to try and make a snowflake runner to go at the bottom of it. I found this design (you can also find a video tutorial on You Tube) and bought some aran weight wool in sparkly white (Caron party) and red Stylecraft also in aran. Here is my attempt! They are quite a decent size too. I really think they will look lovely but whether I will actually get it done in time for this year is another matter. 

So that's all from me for today. I think that's enough. I am exhausted!

Goodbye sweet Misty

I am heartbroken. There is no other word for it. Today, I had to put my beloved Ragdoll cat down. She was only 5 years of age. She had gradually stopped eating and after blood tests were done it was discovered she had kidney disease. I have spend the last day, holding her in my arms and watching her life slowly ebb away. It has been the hardest couple of days in my life. She was like a family member and I loved her so much. She was the most beautiful thing with beautiful, soft fur and the bluest eyes. She was gentle natured and never did anything nasty. I am so very sad today.

Misty

April 2009 - December 2014

Precious girl

Below is from this week...

Below is from a few years ago. She looked much brighter then.

These are from this week. Poor girl. She had lost all her strength. :(

Love you Misty. Beautiful girl.

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